A wonderful man died earlier this week. I was privileged to give the homily at his funeral this morning.
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| The Sower, by Vincent van Gogh (1888) |
Our Gospel passage
recalls the parable of the sower, where Jesus teaches us that those who hear
the Word of God and embrace it with a generous and good heart will bear
abundant fruit. God’s Word, incarnate in
the person of Jesus Christ, can be summed up in just one word – love. As our second reading tells us, “God is love,
and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.” (1 John 4: 16) So “God’s love for us is the source of our
power to love.”[1] Love
is dynamic, not static. It has to
move. So if we embrace God’s love with a
good and generous heart, we won’t be able to hold it in. Like the sower, we’ll scatter the seeds of
love far and wide. We will, ourselves,
become sowers of the seeds of God’s love.
And we will produce abundant
fruit.
That’s our challenge
from today’s readings – to embrace God’s Word; to embrace God’s love and share
it with others. I’m told that there’s a
saying hanging on a bulletin board in John’s classroom that goes something like
this: “God gives his toughest battles to
his strongest soldiers.” Now, in light
of John’s illness and death, we might be tempted to think that God gave John his
battle with cancer. But that’s not
true. God can’t harm us or hurt us. It’s inconsistent with his very being, which
is love. In fact, God already conquered
death through the passion, death and resurrection of his only Son. God won that battle. We’re celebrating Christ’s victory over death
and his gift of eternal life in this Mass today. No, God’s toughest battle is convincing us to
receive his boundless love and to share it with each other. That’s the battle that God gave to John. That’s the battle God gives to all of
us. And God gave us the only weapon we
need to win it – love. So the only
question that remains, then, is whether we’re willing to take on that battle – whether
we’re willing to sow the seeds of God’s love.
John was. It took Debbie and me all of 5 minutes to choose
today’s readings because sacred scripture spoke so vividly to us of John. John lived a scriptural life. He
embraced the Word of God, he embraced God’s love with his good and generous
heart, and he sowed the seeds of that love among us. John
wasn’t boisterous or preachy about his faith, like me. John, like Elijah in our first reading, found
God in the “tiny whispering sound.”
+ John sowed the seeds of God’s
love playing that organ for us every Sunday in his beaten up, band aid-bound
shoes;
+ John sowed the seeds of God’s
love by sharing his love for God with
his students and colleagues at Pius X High School;
+ John sowed the seeds of
love perfecting his “Crater Cakes” recipe for Katie and never missing a performance
or recital; and
+ John sowed the seeds of
God’s love loving Debbie, even when, in her
words, she wasn't very lovable.
One of John’s students captured him perfectly when she said, “I love
the way love shines in you.” John was a
strong soldier, a generous sower, and a great example for us.
So I return to our
challenge: Will we embrace God’s Word
with good and generous hearts? Will we
sow the seeds of God’s love like John did?
Well, I already know the answer to that question . . . because I've seen
it happening.
+ John’s family and friends sowed
the seeds of God’s love by offering prayer, food and support during John’s
difficult illness;
+ The students and staff at
Pius X sowed the seeds of God’s love in the cards and messages you sent John
that brightened his days and moved him to tears;
+ Katie: You sowed the seeds of God’s love by loving
those “Crater Cakes” more than the Spinning Wheel Diner’s pancakes (or at least
pretending to), but most importantly by sharing your triumphs and your
challenges with him and making him so proud of all that you do; and
+ Debbie: you sowed the seeds of God’s love by loving
John in sickness and in health, and even when he extended his summer vacation
to a vacation from showering and shaving.
“In Christianity, love is the reason, the means, and the end of
life. God is love, and love is life’s
driving force. God created out of love,
has sent his son into the world out of love, and in the end that Love and all
that Love has loved return to the Creator to live eternally.”[2] John loved, so I have no doubt that he lives in perfect health and happiness in
the comforting embrace of the one who is perfect love because “love never
dies.” (1 Corinthians 13: 8)
I don’t remember when I first
met John. We knew each other as fellow
parishioners who exchanged pleasant greetings on Sundays; later as brothers in
ministry who collaborated at Mass; and finally, by the grace of God, as
friends. I came to know John best in his
darkest hour, and what a gift that time with John was for me. We shared our hopes and fears. We had deep theological discussions, and we
chatted about the weather. We mused
about why he loved to watch golf on TV but couldn't understand what people
found so entertaining about soccer. But
most of all, we talked about love. He
told me that Debbie and Katie were the loves of his life. He told me how much he loved all of you. He told me how deeply he felt your love for
him and how your love carried him through his illness. And he told me that he truly believed that
God loved him more than he could imagine.
Even in dying, John sowed the seeds of God’s love. You gotta love John Burns.
Readings: 1 Kings 19: 4-9a, 11-15a; 1 John 4: 7-16; Luke 8: 4-10a, 11b-15
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